With the changing of the leaves brings on big fall swings in the height of the Ohio river, 20 ft swings are not out of the norm. Fall can be my most productive time to fish the Ohio River and its tributaries, some people avoid the falling River who doesn’t like fishing a river on the rise but their are a lot opportunities on falling water.

Do you avoid fishing falling water especially when it’s dropping a 10 ft in a day? I did for years, I had to force myself to fish on falling water filled with debris. With the short days the fish know winter is coming and are focused on feeding, it’s all about the bait fish. Those creek mouths and main river points that were so productive just a few days before on the rise have become a no man’s land, the fish are just not where they used to be.

With falling water points and flats start having more and more current, conditions changing so fast that baitfish have a hard time dealing with all those changing conditions. Its fall time and almost everything in the river is putting the feed bags on now, find the bait and you find the predators. Look for places that offer the baitfish protection from predators.

Look for deep cuts or smaller feeder creeks just inside the mouth of a tributary that are protected from the falling waters current. With a deep pool or back eddy water that has structure around it, a example would be a small run off up in a tributary that has eroded a small protected area that is forming a back eady that is deep, throw in some down trees or giant root balls and you have a perfect example. When you find the right set of conditions the bait fish will be held in tight balls or in the root balls even if you don’t see any other game fish on your fishfinder hang out where the bait is they will come back.

Sometimes when you can fish it’s not the most ideal conditions and falling water is one of them finding the bait can lead to some high number days with mixed bags of spots, smallies, white bass, hybrids and some nearby saugs. We can not control what mother nature does but if we follow her patterns long enough we can see how to use all the different weather patterns to help find fish. Happy fall fishing.

Its fall the leaves are changing and the Bluegrass Kayak Anglers 2 day Classic on Cave Run lake is here, not only is it the last tourney of the year but if you are in the hunt for some AOY point in the Bluegrass each day counts as a tourney so if one was to do well two days in a row could gain some serious AOY points. Before for Cave Run Lake going over the AOY points it looks like about the top 15 anglers got a shot at the AOY title and all of them are amazing sticks it’s a total honor to just compete against these guys. On the drive down my mind wanders back over the season, all the way back to a phone call I had with Chad Hoover, who in so many words told me to avoid going head to head with the KY anglers, hurting my pride I resolved myself too going head to head every chance I could. The Bluegrass Kayak Anglers s Cave Run Classic was having extra meaning for me.

Photo credit AJ Mcwhorter

The lake greets me with amazing looking cloudy skies, warm weather and the it is full of wood rock and weeds. Dropping 2 inches of water in 24 hours for some dock work, hearing the bite has suffered from this, a smile cracks my face these conditions tend to be when I do my best when conditions are tougher. Heading out on the main lake to look for and fish a bunch of man made fish attractors near the channel since there is going to be current, hoping to find bait fish holding to the channel ledges and fishing any anomalies I can find that Large mouth could sit on. Playing to my strength fishing structure with a small worm on a ledge. But this train made no stops here and the fish just weren’t biting for me, catching two dinks. “Not to worry I have more days to find them.” I tell myself but I need to do better.

Day two pre fishing much of the same just two dinks, throwing everything at them and it’s a weightless fluke and my favorite bait a texas rigged worm are the only things working for me. The deck of boat is littered with fallen soldiers (baits that just didn’t cut it). My mind whispers to me “You need to do better!”

Day three hits and I am now starting to think that there is no pattern that its just going to be a grind of turning over new water and thats what I do all day and I totally blanked! Thinking maybe its like that for everyone till my buddy AJ Mcwhorter sends me a text of how he was killing it being on the water for only 2 hours. One wheel just came off the track mentally, normally I have zero issues keeping that focus or keeping it together but this time a crack has formed. Finding my fish in 3 inches of water to 30 ft of water was not helping. Now my mind is yelling at me to do better.

Finally Tourney day and for the first time this year I was not excited, it was like waking up to a dark room. As soon as I launch my boat that cold dark gloomy feeling left finding a rock wall and catch two dinks back to back this day is looking better already. The grind was real as I never found another fish and that crack in my confidence grew wider, you could hear it as it cracked more. The absolute worst thing that a competitive angler can do is have a lack of confidence, even in the worst of conditions its only one cast away and everything can change. If it wasn’t for some good friends, I may have left and I would have never forgiven myself if I did even writing about this has me a little ticked off that I was contemplating leaving.

Tourney Day 2 hitting the water a little behind than I wanted to be but it’s a new day. Nothing really special to write about but I found 3 fish (finally a limit) all small but a limit. Fishing was tough for everyone even the leaders talked about the grind.

Adam Sheppard With a Muskie from prefishing

Adam Shepard took the top Honors after his consistent performance over two days, lets talk about just how consistent his performance all season has been. Seems like he was in the top 3 or 5 at every single event he also tied for AOY with Mathew Schaffer. Matthew got the tiebreaker and won AOY and Adam took second in AOY total bad ass performance my hat off to everyone who has fished the season in my book you all are bad ass! When you fish the Bluegrass Kayak Anglers tourneys you not only fish against some of the best anglers in the country you surround yourself with some really good people. Top three anglers 1st Adam Shaffer 2nd Tony Hobbs 3rd Corey Linkins

To be honest for a couple days after the tourney I didn’t feel like I learned anything just felt like I couldn’t put it together, but maybe I was meant to learn a bigger lesson. Placing 24th midfield during the tourney I felt nothing was going my way and that wasn’t true it was just my pride getting in the way of my fishing, wanting to prove something. The bigger lesson for me when I fish for my pride I do my worst and loose the focus needed to just fish and without my friends new and old talking me off the proverbial ledge those are the things that count have nothing to do with where I place but the experience I have with others and the laughs we share. My pride getting in the way of thinking of how to fish better i spent time thinking I need to do better. The lessons I learn best are some of the harder lessons.

Battle on East Harbor KBF Tourney put on by Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail had build up starting weeks and weeks out excited anglers were posting and messaging each other furiously, have not seen so many messages since the Hobie Open. Some were reaching out to me personally over Facebook and it was great meeting all of you we had a special guest in the form of 2016 National Champ Matt Ball a super nice guy and amazing stick he also had a couple of good sticks from WV with him. This event drew people from all over 4 or 5 states and Canada came for the event giving us a big and competitive field.

Arriving to pre fish East Harbor we found a killer little place there that had their own dock which made it really convenient for fishing. There were a few of us staying the same place Michael Gunder, Bert Guthus, Joe Ruwoldt, Dan Bell and Josh Gallimore and all I can say this was a great group of guys to stay with lots of laughs and lots of good times.

After driving up we start our searching around on Wednesday looking in the in all the places I would normally go, any irregular looking geographical feature I can find on my Navtronics and my first impression of the Harbor was how different it was from Cedar Creek lake that I had just finished a tourney on the weekend before. Cedar Creek lake was 94 degree water and close to 100 degrees air temp East Harbor was 74 degree water and low 80s air temp, the other major difference was weeds, weeds, weeds and their are a lot of weeds but underlying those weeds were some weed edges that had something different about them that would hold the fish in keys areas and those spots held a lot of fish. Finding plenty of small bass and one really fat big one back in a corner by a bridge. Ended the day with 30 something fish and with that big one my feelings about East Harbor were at easy.

Thursday started out with weed edges and the fish were there and in numbers and quality it always comes back to finding that thing that is different, a bump out or a depression. The frog bite was on for those who were partaking in the frog I am one who does not frog no real reason but I just almost never throw it. After watching Bert get 6 good hits in one patch of lilies had me back at the hotel tying one on. Hanging out that night and talking fishing around rigging up some new baits Gunter wouldn’t stop talking frog so of course I had thoughts of lilies and frogs.

Friday is frog day! I started out with nothing but frog and I frogged till my arms hurt and all I got was two like limp ass bites, I mean like totally the weakest thing I have ever witness. I decide to go look at the weed lines again and I begin to refine my spots and finding the reasons the fish are biting the way they are. They are actively feeding and ambushing so the biggest problem is finding them and they seem to be eating two things really well a small green pumpkin craw texas rigged ¼ oz and then switching to a goby colored tube, I was getting bites on swimbaits but they were annihilating those two baits. I know the day before a tourney you shouldn’t stick every bass you can but just enough to get a idea. In one spot i was overtaken with bass fever, it had it really bad, more like two spots but they were close together and in 50 casts I had 50 bites! All I had to do was cast it next to this depression and next to a weed line that had a small bump out in it and pop the bait a couple times and WHAM! I literally stuck 80 plus fish the night before a tourney almost all of them were 17 inches but I just couldn’t stop I just had to do it, I tried and tried to leave but I just had to catch them, just one more than just one more than i was at 80 fish. This had me a little nervous about the tourney but things always seem to work out and I was having so much fun I didn’t really care how I place, just roll with it.

Its Tourney time and after a quick captains meeting all the anglers hit the water with 20 mph winds luckily I have the Hobie 180 Mirage drive giving me the precise movement and positioning I was going to need to fight the wind and keep me over the fish. Using all the info that pre fishing had given me I go to my first spot and begin the day with my limit in the first 20 minutes (big smile) all small but it’s a limit, So the cullying started and slowly but surely the bigger ones came, a ¼ inch at a time but they came. It was a complete slug fest all three of my friends and I were catching fish but that brought a lot more anglers over it quickly got crowded and I counted 10 people in a very small area. Finding the right presentation kept the bites coming for me even after the bite slowed, for me it was a long lined slow drift along a weed line that was getting me all the fish I submitted. Achieving this long lined slow drift with precision along the weed line was really touchy with the crazy wind and waves. I was really using my Pro Angler to the fullest and I owe that boat a lot for the fish I caught no other boat was able to get that precision. This made it a hammer fest and honestly it was so much fun that it should be illegal.

At the end I found myself in 3rd and I was super pumped to make the top three with the list of anglers that did the tourney I was very fortunate to be able to put it all together. Joe Ruwoldt, Josh Gilmore and Bert Guthus all placed well enough to get their tickets punch for the National Championship in 2018 with a $100,000.00 pay out, with that said I am going to not make it easy for them. 🙂 Congrats to Russel Johnson for 1st place and big fish and Brad Lehman for 2nd place.

Big thanks needs to go out to my sponsors Strictly Sail, Hobie, Torqeedo, and Cal Costa please check them out and give them your support they all have done a ton for our sport.

Its officially summer at Kentucky Lake and its the Hobie Bass Open this all means that some big fish will be caught by the country’s best anglers looking for one of two spots for Hobie Worlds. Kentucky lake is my favorite lake to fish but not having the summertime knowledge I got there almost a week before to pre fish and check out that ledge bite.

Ron Champion is one really cool angler. fun just joking around with him.

Pre fishing is always a lot of driving on KY lake it seems like everything is a hour from where you are. Checking out some bays with ledges close by it didn’t take long to notice all the FLW boats on the ledges. For me personally I never found a good school of good fish on ledges, only finding small schools of small fish I began to turn my attention to the shallows which I am more comfortable with and love picking threw wood. Finding a pattern of decent fish hanging out near the patches of grass and if I burned a small worm over top and killed it at the edge I would get some bigger bites.

Always nice to have a pattern but still looking to find a ledge bite and using the Hobie’s Mirage drive to its fullest in my search but never finding some fish. Looking at some main lake points and finding some schools on the longest points made for some fun pre fishing but the quality fish never showed themselves.

Day 1 Went by quick catching a decent bag of fish on my pattern burning the a worm and killing it over grass. My teammate Tyler Tacy found a great pattern of Jigging docks and found some good ones. My bag for the day was 50.75. Tyler Tacy first day got him in the top 10 with 54.25 and let’s not forget to mention Jay Wallens amazing performance 58.75 inches!

Ripping a small worm over weeds.

Day 2 Started out with me waking up with a massive headache and when loading up my car puked out of nowhere. Not how i normally start my day, but you know you have to just deal with the cards you’re dealt. Luckily my pattern changed very little and I got my limit quick but needing a kicker fish I decided to change spots and look for those ledge fish again. Seeing Jay Wallens first day I knew i needed some big fish. Getting out on the main lake made feel like dog poop so I found a shady spot and took a short nap. Just what I needed I started feeling better and soon landed a nice 18 inch smallmouth off a long main lake point. Second day total 51.5 inches. Back at check in Jay was looking nervous and that means he did good and he did do good, good enough to take the win with 56.75 for a total of 115.5! Everyone was close this was a super competitive field glad to have been there.

Hobie put on a great event we had food every day waiting for use can’t tell you how much that means to you when you have been on the water all day and a great raffle and not to mention if you made the top 12 you got a paycheck. Ironically I was unlucky and placed 13th just shy of a paycheck, already thinking about getting back to Kentucky lake and find some of those big ledge schools.

Late spring and early summer has been bringing most of us heavy rains and in Southwest Ohio we have had two major rain events that caused major flooding. What does all this mean to us, chocolate milk colored water not the best for fishing. Not only are these storms bring muddy water but the debris being brought out of all the tributaries everything from full trees to pop bottles and other garbage. It’s easy to get discourage with conditions like these but if you take a minute and look what the fish are doing you can put yourself on good fish in bad conditions.

With heavy rain bringing in muddy water from creeks and other run off into the lakes and reservoirs positioning the bass on cover or clean water if they can find it. Bass tend to find clearer water and when that’s gone they will glue themselves to structure the bigger bass like having deep water close by. Using their lateral line in muddy water to find a safe place to hide out until hunger overtakes them and forcing them to eat. Grass tends to hold cleaner water and if you can find structure with deep water close by this gives the bigger fish more confidence, the bigger bass take the best spots. Never be afraid of taking you time working the best spots, work all the structure thoroughly, let it soak. Finding the biggest and nasty wood or big rock and picking it apart, starting with cranks to pick of the most active ones and transitioning to soft plastics to get in close and find the ones that won’t budge off the structure.

Skip a worm under the rose bushes.

The fish have to eat whether the conditions are good or not, slow days fish are still biting but it may be so soft and quick, it will feel like bumping a branch or rock. Hook sets are cheap use them often (great advice from Barry). My personal biggest LMB on public water was one of the softest bites I have ever set the hook on, I actually assumed it was some grass that the lure was getting caught in. Look for cuts that have three good reasons a bass wants to be there (grass, clearer water, structure, deep water close by). Always start with your hard baits and working the points of cuts and changing over to soft plastics to pick off the fish that are slow biters and don’t be afraid to set the hook even if you don’t think its a bass you may be surprised. I like to pitch at.

22.25 inch LMB from public waters she was holding close to structure. Throw at least three times all the way to the back of a cut. Colors to use really are up to use I normally keep it pretty natural looking but I will throw the black and blue creature baits or worms.

So the next time its blown out and you have time try fishing in tight to structure and hopefully you find a slob of a bass waiting for you. If you liked or found this helpful please like and share.